It's no secret that hardworking American taxpayers often watch as the fruits of their labor are co-opted by the government and used to fund projects, agencies, or priorities that don't align with their own. It's frustrating, but taxes are notoriously the one certain thing other than death.
Some federal government uses of tax dollars are more inexplicable and infuriating than others, especially those that see revenues leave America's shores while taxpayers see their fellow citizens — sometimes even their own families — struggling to build a good life at home.
Well, prepare to be even more infuriated at bloated government and its use of tax revenues thanks to new analysis of tax dollars that ended up in Russia and China over the past five years released by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) on Wednesday afternoon.
According to this new review of federal spending in Russia and China, more than $490 million worth of taxpayer-funded grants and contracts were awarded to entities in China while even more — $870 million — went to Russian entities. That's just the $1.3 billion-plus tax dollars that could be tracked to Russia and China, as Ernst notes, because federal agencies aren't currently required to follow tax dollars to their ultimate destination and report that information.
What's more, the federal government itself has admitted there's a "government-wide issue" with its limited ability to track tax dollars. In a Government Accountability Office report from earlier this year, the GAO explained this flaw:
For example, the Department of Health and Human Services obligated funding through assistance awards to study infectious diseases, and the Department of State obligated funding through contracts to purchase goods and services for U.S. government operations in China. U.S. award recipients also provided funding through subawards to entities located in China. However, the full extent of these subawards is unknown because of limitations in the completeness and accuracy of subaward data reported in government systems. For example, subaward data may be incomplete because award recipients are required to provide information only for subawards valued at $30,000 or more, in accordance with federal subaward reporting requirements. Limitations in subaward data is a government-wide issue and not unique to U.S. funding to entities in China.
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"It is gravely concerning that no one in Washington can actually account for millions sent to Russia and China for pointless projects. But I have the receipts," Senator Ernst told Townhall. "I’m shining a light on this reckless spending, so bureaucrats can no longer cover up their tracks and taxpayers can know exactly what their hard-earned dollars are funding."
What was found in the analysis of taxpayer-funded projects in Russia and China over the last five years by Ernst included art exhibits for "gender equality," Russian research of alcohol addiction, food for American school lunches from Chinese companies, payments to a Russian company that has been sanctioned by the U.S. government, and more than $750,000 for a Russian government-run lab to put cats on treadmills.
So how did the work of Americans turn into paydays for those in Russia and China, including entities being economically punished by the U.S. government? An apparently staggering lack of accountability paired with a federal spending binge that seems to know no bounds.
To that end, Ernst — along with Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) in the House — unveiled the Tracking Receipts to Adversarial Countries for Knowledge of Spending (TRACKS) Act on Wednesday to bring clearly needed transparency and accountability for taxpayer dollars as they make their way around the world while making it more difficult for waste, fraud, and abuse to go unnoticed and unchecked.
The TRACKS Act would amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to require those spending U.S. tax dollars to "collect and report data relating to subawards granted to entities outside of the United States" and to make that information publicly available for oversight, holding the government more accountable to the taxpayers who fund it.
"Washington’s continued spending is so out of hand it is losing track of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars," Ernst noted to Townhall. "Enough is enough; I am creating accountability for every penny," she pledged.
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